The U.S. Capitol complex has been placed under a rare tornado warning as severe weather from Storm Debby heads toward the Washington, D.C. area.
The U.S. Capitol Police said that because of the warning, personnel inside the Capitol Complex should immediately move to severe weather shelters in their offices and no one should leave the building until instructed to do so.
They were told to take emergency equipment and visitors with them. If people were not near their offices, they were told to go to the nearest office and take shelter there.
Police said people should lock and stay away from exterior doors and windows.
People in Washington, including those in the Capitol Complex, are under a tornado warning as storms head toward the DC area.
Police asked people to lock and stay away from exterior doors and windows.
Both the House and Senate are out of session this week, so there are no lawmakers currently on Capitol Hill.
They still have staff present in their offices to answer questions from constituents and conduct guided tours of the Capitol.
On Thursday, the Washington Nationals baseball team’s game was delayed due to bad weather.
Grounds crews spread a tarp to cover the field during a weather delay in the eighth inning of a baseball game between the Nationals and the San Francisco Giants.
Storm Debby made a second landfall in South Carolina as it moves up the East Coast, spawning damaging tornadoes and fresh flooding.
More than 130,000 people have been left without power due to tornado activity, resulting in widespread structural damage.
The National Hurricane Center said Debby made landfall early Thursday near Bulls Bay, South Carolina, making its first landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, temporarily closing part of Interstate 95.
The Washington Nationals’ grounds crew rolls out a tarp to cover the field during a weather delay in the eighth inning of a baseball game between the Nationals and the San Francisco Giants on Thursday.
The tropical storm is expected to continue moving inland, bringing heavy rain and possible flooding to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast through the weekend.
As of early Thursday morning, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph in Miami, with its center about 90 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina.
As she headed to North Carolina, there were even reports that Wilson County emergency services were searching for a man possibly trapped inside, according to local news outlet ABC11.
Meanwhile, three tornado warnings have been issued east of Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as in Dortches and Rocky Mount.
Debby is not done flooding parts of eastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, and an additional 3 to 9 inches (8 to 23 centimeters) of rain is possible as the storm moves north, raising concerns about flash flooding in mountainous areas of West Virginia.
Keon Johnson and his wife Zyla Johnson, left, talk about getting to work since their home on Tappan Zee Drive flooded (Aug. 7)
Charles Grainger cleans up around his home Wednesday in the French Quarter Creek Historic District as flood waters from Tropical Storm Debby recede
At least three tornadoes were reported overnight in North Carolina, including one around 3 a.m. that damaged at least four homes, a church and a school in Wilson County, east of Raleigh, county officials said. No injuries were immediately reported.
Standing water several feet deep covered parts of the small town of Bladenboro, where officers posted photos of a patrol car damaged by a tree and washed-out roads.
In Huger, northeast of Charleston, South Carolina, Gene Taylor waited for the water to drain from his home along French Quarter Creek as high tide passed.
She had learned the hard way how to start moving her belongings up or out of her house last week, when Debby was approaching. Taylor believes this is the fourth time her house has flooded in the past nine years.
“In 2015, we were caught with our pants down. We were just waiting, we didn’t think the water was going to rise that fast. But it did and it got us. We couldn’t even get our vehicles out,” Taylor said.
At least four dams have broken northwest of Savannah in Bulloch County, Georgia, but no deaths have been reported, authorities said. More than 75 people were rescued from floodwaters in the county, emergency management director Corey Kemp said, and about 100 roads were closed.
“We’ve been faced with a lot of things we’ve never faced before,” said Bulloch County Commission Chairman Roy Thompson.
“I’m over 78 years old and I’ve never seen anything like this in Bulloch County. It’s unbelievable what has happened and what’s going to continue to happen until all this water is gone from here.”